My fellow California taxpayers, you and I are now major investors in film and television productions. Our agent — or I should say our 120 agents in the state Legislature — cut a five-year deal last week putting more than 1.5 billion of our hard-earned dollars, via tax credits, into the production of on-screen entertainment.

Of course, financially speaking, this investment is a bad deal. Entertainment is a stagnant business these days, with declining movie ticket sales and TV ratings. Plus, we’re breaking the cardinal rule of Hollywood: Never use your own money. The existing tax incentive program, at $100 million a year, hasn’t stopped production crews from migrating to other shooting locales, nor have long-standing sales and property tax exemptions. So now we’re betting, as Hollywood so often does, on a more expensive sequel, even though various studies, including from the state’s own legislative analyst, show that Hollywood tax credits don’t pay for themselves.

Yes, I know there are provisions in the new deal for audits and penalties to guarantee that our investment in tax credits will produce more and better in-state entertainment jobs. But let’s not forget that Hollywood executives are the Rembrandts of creative accounting: Even the most successful movies manage to evade a profit that could be shared or taxed. In a deal between the state of California and an industry that has kept “Return of the Jedi” from booking a profit, who do you think is going to come out on top?

We should remember that investing in the movie business has never been primarily about making money. It’s about buying cache, about laundering money made in less noble enterprises, and about giving older, richer people the chance to interact with the beautiful people who make movies. That’s why our legislators were never going to turn down Hollywood’s insistent entreaties for this new public investment; it’s also why this new program is all but certain to get much bigger, as requests for these tax incentives are expected to far outstrip the $330 million a year in the new legislation.

All that said, there is one obvious omission in the terms of our new investment worth complaining about: You and I have been cut out of the Hollywood fun.

You and I are not being treated like the major Hollywood investors we now are. We’re not getting the red carpet treatment. California taxpayers will be providing 20 to 25 percent of movie budgets. Like other investors, we should get paid back out of the grosses before the filmmakers themselves get their cut — particularly when you consider we’re talking about taxpayer money that would be better spent on schools. But that’s not in the deal — and neither are the producer credits major investors receive. And we’re missing out on the perks: You and I should get to meet the stars, visit the set, and get two tickets to the premiere of the movies we invest in. (Personally, I’d also like my own director’s chair, with my name on the back.) I realize it’s not feasible for a single movie to accommodate millions of taxpayer-investors, but a lottery could dole out some of these perks to the public.

While we’re talking deal points: Would it hurt you to diversify casting to reflect the population of the state that funds you? Could you step up your philanthropy here? And why not let Californians vote online on which films should receive incentives?

The good news is, even if our big investment goes terribly wrong, we will have learned the lesson that it’s best to keep your distance from Hollywood people. I find it personally instructive that the quintessential film about Hollywood, “Sunset Boulevard,” begins and ends with a newspaperman named Joe (who takes a tragic turn into Hollywood) dead in a swimming pool.

Yes, we Californians are ready for our close-up. But it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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